Burns in Babies and Children

You may think It’s common sense to keep hot drinks away from your babies, toddler’s, and children. But did you know that 30 youngsters a day end up in A&E with burns relating to hot drinks like tea and coffee. 

 

I don’t know about you, but my children are like Ninjas. One minute they are sitting nicely on the sofa and the next they’re climbing the bookcase! And they can reach further that I would think possible. 

Its in this split second that devastating injuries can occur. 

 

So what do you do? 

 

The first thing you need to think about is cooling the burn. What we’re trying to do here is stop the heat from penetrating deeper layers of skin and tissue. The deeper the burn, the more serious the injury and long lasting the effects. 

 

If the child has clothing on, do not remove the clothing. Put the affected area under cool running water for at least 20 minutes. This is an exceptionally long time, and you may struggle to keep your child there, but IT IS CRUCIAL. Because of this, it is important that the temperature of the water is not freezing cold - it should be comfortable and tepid. 

 

Now, I just want to emphasis how effective this treatment is: 

 

I burn myself ALL THE TIME. 

 

1) Curling Wands and straighteners. I recently picked up the curling wand WAND END!!! OUCH 

2) Cookiing 

3) Steam burns from the kettle 

 

I mean, its almost a weekly occurrence for me. But am I scarred??? NO! Do my burns still hurt days afterwards? NO? 

 

And the simple reason why is because I make sure I cool the burn as quickly as possible, and I do this for a minimum of 20 minutes. This means I am stopping the burn from penetrating deeper into my skin. 

 

After 20 minutes, assess the burn. Is it still red? Is the child still in pain? 

 

If you answer NO to BOTH these two questions – great job! Continue to monitor the burn. We still advise that you seek medical advice. This could be speaking to a pharmacist or if you can’t get to a pharmacist, 111. 

 

If you answer YES to one or more of these questions – you must seek further medical attention. The size of the burn and whether it has blistered will determine the type of attention you get. For example, a blister larger that a 50p would be a visit to hospital. Much larger than this, you would need to call 999. 

 

But don’t forget, when in doubt CALL 111. Worse case scenario they can call an ambulance for you or advise you to go to hospital.